Regional Trade Agreements and the WTO Legal System

• Discusses the proliferation of regional trade agreements which represent a significant challenge to WTO law
• The co-existence of RTAs and the WTO raises critical issues of fragmentation of international trade law and jurisdictional competition
• Contributors include scholars, government officials, and experts from international organizations, offering practical, conceptual, institutional, and official perspectives

Readership: Scholars and advanced students of international law and WTO law; scholars of international trade, economics, and international relations;

Edited by Lorand Bartels, Lecturer in International Economic Law, University of Edinburgh, and Federico Ortino, Reader in International Law, Kings College London

John Jackson: Preface
1: Lorand Bartels and Federico Ortino: Introduction
Part I Framework Issues
2: William Watson and Viet Dung Do: The Economic Dimension of Regional Trade Agreements and their Relation to the Multilateral Trading System: A Survey of the Literature
3: Chad Damro: The Political Economy of Regional Trade Agreements
4: Professor Thomas Cottier and Marina Foltea: Constitutional Functions of the WTO and Regional Trade Agreements
Part 2 WTO Regulation of Regional Trade Agreements
5: James Mathis: Regional Trade Agreements and Domestic Regulation: What Reach for 'Other Restrictive Regulations of Commerce'
6: Angela Gobbi Estrella and Gary Horlick: Mandatory Abolition of Antidumping, Counterveiling Duties and Safeguards in Customs Unions and Free-Trade Areas Constituted Between WTO Members: Revisiting a Long Standing Discussion in Light of the Appellate Body's Turkey - Textiles Ruling
7: Jose Antonio Rivas: How Free Trade Areas and their Rules of Origin Comply with GATT Article XXIV
Part III WTO-plus Issues in Regional Trade Agreements
8: Markus Krajewski: Services Liberalisation in Regional Trade Agreements: Lessons for GATS 'Unfinished Business'?
9: Federico Ortino and Audley Sheppard: Bilateral, Regional and Multilateral Agreements Covering Foreign Investment in Services: Patterns and Linkage
10: Bryan Mercurio: TRIPS-Plus Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements
11: Melaku Desta and Naomi Barnes: Competition Law and Regional Trade Agreements
12: Gareth Davies: Is Mutual Recognition an Alternative to Harmonisation? Lesson on Trade and Tolerance of Diversity from the EU
13: Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann: The WTO, Regional Trade Agreements and Human Rights
14: Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger: Sustainable Development in Regional Trade Agreements
Part IV Dispute Settlement in Regional Trade Agreements
15: Bill Davey: Dispute Settlement in Regional Trade Agreements and the WTO: An Introduction
16: Armand de Mestral: NAFTA Dispute Settlement: Creative Experiment or Confusion?
17: Ignacio Garcia Bercero: Bilateral Dispute Settlement in EU Free Trade Agreements: Lessons Learned?
18: Andreas Ziegler: Dispute Settlement in Bilateral Free Trade Agreements: The EFTA Experience
19: Yan Luo: Dispute Settlement in the Proposed East Asia Regional Trade Agreements: What Can We Learn From the EU and NAFTA?
Part V Interfaces Between the WTO and Regional Trade Agreements
20: Piet Eeckhout: The EU and its Member States in the WTO: Issues of Responsibility
21: Kyung Kwak and Gabrielle Marceau: Overlaps and Conflicts of Jurisdiction Between the WTO and RTA's
22: Locknie Hsu: Applicability of WTO Law in Regional Trade Agreements: Identifying the Links
23: Isabelle Van Damme: What Role is there for Regional International Law in the Interpretation of the WTO Agreements?